NOW SHOWING: LONDON SCREEN GUIDE w/c 03.02.17

To help in your hunt for adventurous moving pictures, RADIANT CIRCUS hand-picks London’s screen highlights for the week ahead*. This time, we’ve broadened our venue menu considerably, resulting in an even tastier cinematic smorgasbord.

FRIDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2017, 20.30, WHIRLED CINEMA

We love Apichatpong Weerasethakul for his tender ways with often tragic themes (we reviewed PRIMITIVE 2009 at TATE). Whether it’s his feature films or art installations, Weerasethakul combines a spiritual magic realism with often meandering, lo-fi storytelling. Membership-based WHIRLED CINEMA (“small, cosy and intimate”) screens CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR, Weerasethakul’s 2015 film about a group of soldiers affected by a mysterious sleeping illness.

Looking for an alternative? Unleash your inner activist with the BERNIE GRANT ARTS CENTRE as they screen British doc GENERATION REVOLUTION (19.30) about “a new generation of activists who are changing the social and political landscape”.

SUNDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2017, 18.30, JW3

Working with UK JEWISH FILM, JW3 screens OPERATION WEDDING followed by a Q&A with director Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov. The documentary explores contrasting views of a group of young Jewish dissidents and would-be hijackers in 1970s USSR.

Looking for an alternative? CURZON SOHO screens a double bill of baffling celluloid beauties, LOST HIGHWAY & RABBIT’s MOON (15.00). Whilst David Lynch is an obvious candidate for RADIANT CIRCUS, we’ll be there for Kenneth Anger’s 16mm short about woodland clowns. Continuing the day’s celluloid theme, the PRINCE CHARLES turns up the vomit with a 35mm 45th anniversary screening of PINK FLAMINGOS (21.00).

MONDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2017, 19.00, THE FRONTLINE CLUB

THE WAR SHOW (19.00), followed by a Q&A with director Andreas Dalsgaard is at FRONTLINE, a gathering place for “people interested in international affairs and independent journalism”. The doc is a first-person account of young people’s shifting experiences of Syria from dreams of revolution to the reality of civil war.

Looking for an alternative? Catch up with TOWER (18.30) at BERTHA DOCHOUSE, a part-animated account of the USA’s first campus shooting. TOWER runs at CURZON BLOOMSBURY (and other locations!) from 05-09 FEBRUARY.

TUESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2017, various, PICTUREHOUSES

HALF-WAY, a 2015 documentary about homelessness and Britain’s welfare state, screens in the PICTUREHOUSE DOCS and DISCOVER TUESDAYS strands: that’s a provocative double-header. Head to CLAPHAM or STRATFORD.

Looking for an alternative? DEPTFORD CINEMA continues its SLICES OF FRENCH CINEMA with Maurice Pialat’s feature debut L’ENFANCE NUE (20.00), one of those films that smacks you round the chops with its striking realism.

WEDNESDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2017, 18.30, TATE MODERN

César Vayssié presents the UK premiere of UFE (UNFILMÉVÈNEMENT), a film that continues one of this week’s unscripted themes – that of youth and revolution. Followed by discussion with the artist.

TROPICAL HANGOVER, TENDERPIXEL

Finally, a new multi-artist show opens at digital gurus TENDERPIXEL from 08.02.17 to 04.03.17. We don’t know much about TROPICAL HANGOVER, but there’s bound to be some moving pictures in there somewhere, right? We’ll let you know.